Shops have come and gone from Tooting regularly over the years. Which ones have survived? When did the first coffee shop appear? How should we remember the historic shops of Tooting?

Come and hear Philip Bradley talk about some of the shops of Tooting past at our next monthly meeting on Tuesday 11th February 2025 at 7.30pm. We meet at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW179NQ.

We had a very successful and well attended meeting on Tuesday 11^th February about “Tooting Shops Past And Present”. At our March meeting we will be talking Tooting Shops again. We want you to bring along your pictures, objects, adverts and memories associated with Tooting’s shops, particularly from the 1960s onwards. We will also be hearing a bit more about the early 19^th Century history of Tooting’s shops and preparing a map of the shops of Tooting.

There is a lot of enthusiasm for the “Tooting Historic Shops Trail” we are proposing. We are aiming to display boards in about 20 Tooting Shops with information and images of the previous shops on the site. To take the project forward, we need volunteers:

• To approach shopkeepers in Upper Tooting Road/Tooting High Street/Mitcham Road/Tooting Bec Road areas to see whether they would display an A2 board;
• To research the history of Tooting’s shops;
• To help prepare artwork for the trail.

If you put yourself forward to do these roles, we will run briefing sessions to give you an idea of what we are looking to do.

Our March meeting is on Tuesday 11^th March 2025 at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW179NQ.

Sir George Shearing rose from a humble background in Battersea to become a best-selling world-class jazz pianist and composer. From playing in a Battersea pub in the 1930s to conquering Carnegie Hall, he recorded and performed across the world. Come and hear Julian Gorham, Sir George Shearing’s great nephew (and Tooting resident) talk about the life and music of one of Britain’s greatest jazz talents at our next meeting.

Meeting Details: Tuesday 8th April 2025 7.30pm. United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW179NQ.

Plough Lane, Wimbledon has been the site for many sporting events over the years. Professional football, greyhound racing, speedway and stock car racing have all had their day, and in the last three years,  AFC Wimbledon have returned to a brand new stadium to continue the sporting tradition. 

Come and hear John Lynch (Founder & Managing Director Wimbledon in Sporting Heritage) and Jon Stevens give us a history of Wimbledon’s Sporting Heritage and some of the memorable sporting occasions that have occurred down Plough Lane at our next meeting:

Tuesday 13th May 2025 at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW179NQ.

Our next talk will be on “The Music Hall Artistes of Lambeth Cemetery”. This is jointly organised by Tooting History Group and the Friends of Streatham Cemetery.

How did over 250 music hall artistes and entertainers come to be buried in Tooting? What was life like as a music hall artiste in Victorian and Edwardian times? What songs did they sing? What acts did they perform?

Join Karen Ellis-Rees of London Overlooked/Tooting History Group, Peter Winbourne and Di Berry for an evening of stories and song about the once shining music hall stars who now rest in Lambeth and Streatham Cemeteries. This presentation of words and music will take place in the Chapel of Lambeth Cemetery on Blackshaw Road. Friday 27th June 2025 7.30pm. Chapel, Lambeth Cemetery, Blackshaw Road, SW17 0DH (Entrance between Fountain And Bertal Roads)

The Tooting Granada (“Buzz Bingo”) is the only Grade 1 listed building in Tooting and the only Grade 1 listed Cinema in the UK. Richard Gray is a historian of Cinema architecture and will be telling us about “South London’s Greatest Showplace” through it’s history, architecture and entertainment. We will be showing clips of early films shown at The Granada. He will also speak about some of the other seven cinemas of Tooting and their demise.

Richard is the author of “Cinemas in Britain-A History of Cinema Architecture”

The talk is on Tuesday 8th July at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW179NQ.

Tooting History Group members and residents of the Heritage Park Estate in Tooting have been researching the history of Tooting Bec Asylum/Hospital for the last eighteen months. Wandsworth Council have now agreed to erect a Green Plaque at the Estate to remember the hospital and it’s residents and staff. And Tooting History Group is publishing a book to record the history of the hospital to coincide with the unveiling,

The Green Plaque will be unveiled at 2pm on Saturday 27th September 2025. Part of the original wall to the Asylum is still there, by the pedestrian entrance to the Heritage Park Estate at the corner of Tooting Bec Road

Our next meeting will be on the history of Tooting Bec Asylum, which was on the site of the Heritage Park Estate, Tooting Bec Road.

Karen Ellis-Rees and Philip Bradley will give accounts of some of the original lives lived at the asylum and how it came to be built in Tooting. And there will be a chance to buy our newly published book “Tooting Bec Asylum Remembered 1905-1995”.

Tuesday October 14th 2025 7.30pm.

Elizabeth Halston trained as a midwife in the 1920s and embarked on a career that was to last nearly 25 years. This culminated in nine years as a domiciliary midwife with the London County Council when, in the most difficult and dangerous circumstances of war-torn Lambeth and Wandsworth, she delivered hundreds of babies to women in their own homes. Come and hear her grandson, Robert Holden, celebrating her life and work.

Tuesday November 11th 2025 at 7.30pm.